Decorative structural member and a method of making the same

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a structural decorative member which could be made of a different type of material, such as wood, plastic and metal, and serve as a supporting element in a construction field, such as a baluster for a railing, as well as a supporting peace of an article of a furniture, such as a leg for a decorative chair or a table. The structural member comprises a core made of one type of material and at least one sleeve made of another type of material, which is adhered on a top and surrounding said core. The core and the surrounding sleeve each has predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape complimenting each other. At least one circumferential groove of a preselected length and a depth, as well as a geometric shape, which is sufficient to reveal a portion of the core, is formed on a surface of the member. The groove defines a respective shoulder of predetermined geometric shape and dimensions. The number of grooves is determined by a favorable decorative pattern to be created on the surface. As the result, grooves and the respective shoulders form the variety of multi-colored and/or multi-shaped decorative patterns.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Invention relates to a decorative structural member, which could be made of a different type of material, such as wood, plastic and metal, and utilized as a supporting element in a construction field, such as a baluster for a railing, as well as a supporting peace of an article of a furniture, such as a leg for a decorative chair or a table.

The decorative balusters are well known in the art. However, the balusters of existing types have a pattern which is limited to a slightly differentiated family of a geometric shapes. (See “Coffman Since 1874, Stair Parts Buer's Guide, HARDWOOD Profile Index, February 2001, pages 6 and 7). All of those known balusters are made from one piece of wood and, therefore, have the same and only one color over their surface.

The present invention allows to create a wide range of multi-grained multi-colored and differently shaped balusters having a unique and attractive visual appearance by using a combination of wood pieces having various grain structures and a variety of predetermined geometric shapes. The other type of material, such as plastic or metal, that are different in color can be utilized as well to create a favorable decorative pattern.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention proposes a decorative structural member and a method of making same.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the decorative structural member includes a core and at least one surrounding sleeve made of a different type of material. For instance, the decorative structural member has the core, which is made of a wood having one type of a grain structure, and at least one surrounding sleeve made of a wood having another type of a grain structure or color and adhered on a top of the core.

The core and the surrounding sleeve are each designed to have of a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape and constructed so that an inner size of a surrounding sleeve is substantially equal to an outer size of said core. In other words, the sleeve forms a cavity that is complementary in size and a shape to the core. So, the core snugly fits into the cavity.

At least one circumferential groove of a predetermined geometric shape and dimensions and defining a respective shoulder is formed along the length of the member. In its preferred embodiment the invention includes the groove, which has a preselected length and a depth of a maximum size that is substantially equal to or less than an outer size of the core to form a desirable decorative pattern by partially uncovering the surface of the core.

It is another object of the present invention to provide the groove, which has a size of a depth alternating along its length to form various geometric shapes or the combinations of the same.

As it was mentioned, the core and the surrounding sleeve may have a variety of the predetermined geometric shapes, which is chosen in accordance with the preselected decorative pattern to be form on a surface of the decorative member. As such, the core may have, for example, a rounded shape, a rectangular shape and a triangular shape.

The surrounding sleeve is formed of at least two pieces complimenting each other to define a cavity having a geometric shape corresponding to the geometric shape of said core.

It is further object of the present invention to provide an embodiment which includes a plurality of surrounding sleeves adhered on a top of each other in a consecutive order, so as an inner size of each consecutive sleeve is substantially equal to an outer size of a previous adjacent sleeve. It is understood that the innermost sleeve, which is adjacent to the core, has an inner surface of a size and a geometric shape corresponding to the outer surface of the core.

Preferably, each of said plurality of surrounding sleeves has a different type of the grain structure and/or color. As a result, the finished decorative pattern includes a plurality of multi-grained/multi-colored geometric figures displayed on a surface of the wood member.

It is still further object of the present invention to provide the surrounding sleeves which have their outer and inner surface of a different geometric shape.

Accordingly, the outer surface may have a square shape while the inner surface may have a rounded shape.

In a further embodiment, the outer surface has a square shape and the inner surface has a rectangular shape.

In yet further embodiment, the outer surface has a square shape and the inner surface has a triangle shape.

The axis of the core having, for example, a rectangular or a triangle shape is oriented in parallel or in perpendicular toward the surrounding sleeve, to achieve yet another variety of the decorative multi-grained patterns.

In yet another embodiment, the structural decorative member comprises a plurality of the axially spaced grooves and respective shoulders, which are formed along a length of said decorative member. Once again, both, the groove and the respective shoulder have a predetermined geometric shape and dimensions to design the preselected favorable decorative pattern.

It is still further object of the invention to provide a method for making the structural decorative member described above.

The foregoing objects and other objects as well as the particular features of the structural decorative member will become more apparent and understandable from the following detailed description thereof when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view of the structural decorative member according to the present invention with the core having a rounded geometric shape and the surrounding sleeve having the rectangular outer geometric shape;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the structural decorative member showing grooves and defined by them respective shoulders in a variety of geometric shapes;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 1-1 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the structural decorative member with the core having a triangle geometric shape according to present invention;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the structural decorative wood member with the core having a rectangular geometric shape according to present invention;

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the structural decorative member with a plurality of the surrounding sleeves.

FIG. 9 is a top plan view of the structural decorative member showing the core and the surrounding layer in an axially offset position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of the structural decorative member, generally designated at 1. In its preferred embodiment, the decorative member includes a core 2, which is made of wood having a specific grain structure, for example walnut. The core 2 is surrounded by a sleeve 3 made of a wood having as well a specific, yet another, grain structure, for example red oak. It is apparent that, as the result, the core and the surrounding sleeve each have different grain and/or color in appearance.

The surrounding sleeve 3 is formed of two or more pieces 4. The pieces may be joint by any method well known in the art of carpentry, that allow to achieve a firm and reliable connection of the same into the whole unit. For instance, the pieces can be adhered to each other by utilizing a glue, such as Weather Proof, TiteBond premium wood glue, and then subjected to a pressure of a particular parameters on a Midwest Hot Press, Model NPC 510-160. It is understood that the type of a glue and the parameters of the pressure are determine in view of the material selected for the core and the sleeve, respectively.

As it is further seen from the FIG. 1, the pieces 4 forming the surrounding sleeve 3 define an outer surface 8 and an inner surface 6 of the surrounding sleeve. It is important that the geometric shape of each individual piece 4 is designed to complement each other in a size and a shape so as, in combination, the inner surface 6 define a cavity having the shape and the size, which are corresponding to the outer surface 7 of the core 2.

The core 2 may have the outer surface 8 a and 8 b of various geometric shapes, such as a rounded, triangle or rectangular shape, as depicted in FIGS. 1, 6 and 7. It is understood, that, accordingly, the inner surface 6 a and 6 b will have a corresponding geometric shape.

The structural decorative member further includes one or more axially spaced circumferential grooves 9 and the respective shoulders 10 defined by those grooves. Each groove is designed to have a maximum size of the circumference equal to or preferably less than the size of the outer surface of the core 2, as shown on FIG. 2, to partially uncover the core. It is apparent that the size of the depth of the groove defines the depth/thickness of a layer taken out from the surrounding sleeve to allow creating various figures of the color and grain of the core. Thus, the dimensions of the groove 9 are determined in view of the preselected design of the finished decorative pattern.

The specific shape of the groove on the decorative member 1 is formed by cutting sections 10 of the different length and depth on the outer surface 8 of the surrounding sleeve 3 until the outer surface 7 of the core 2 is touched or partially curved out. As the result, the differently shaped spots or stripes of a color distinctive from the color of the surrounding sleeve are displayed to create the multi-grained and/or multi-colored decorative pattern on a finished baluster or a supporting leg of table or a chair.

Further, as it is shown on FIG. 2, each cutting section 10 defines a shoulder 11 of a different geometric shape, for instance frustum-conical or cylindrical. An any type of the lathe known in the art may be utilized to perform a finished treatment of the billet. Preferably, it is “High Production Hydraulic Copy Lather, Model TA/EC-1600 Winner”, that allow to achieve the best quality of a finished product.

The examples of forming various decorative patterns are presented in the following description.

In one of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, in which the core 2 of the decorative member 1 has a rounded shape and axially positioned toward the surrounding sleeve 3, which has a square shape. The cutting sections 10 will form the colored parallel longitudinal stripes 12 of a particular width and length.

In the other embodiment according to the present invention, illustrated in FIG. 3, the core 2 has a rectangular shape and the surrounding sleeve 3 each has a square shape. In addition, the longitudinal sides 13 of the core 2 are oriented in parallel with the longitudinal sides 14 of the sleeve 3. In this situation, the cutting knife will first touch the angles of the rectangular core as the nearest part of the outer surface of the core 2. Thereat, four vertical stripes 15 of a color of the core 2 appear on the surface of the decorative member 1. By curving further out the sections of an alternating depth, the vertical stripes 15 will be incrementing in width until blended in one stripe.

It is understood, that by combining various geometric shapes of the core 2 and the surrounding sleeve 3 made of the different type of wood, plastic or metal, it is possible to obtain wide range of various decorative patterns having distinctive colors, grain structure and shapes.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, shown in FIG. 8, the structural decorative member includes a plurality of sleeves 3 a, 3 b and 3 c made of the different type of wood and surrounding each other in a consecutive order. The inner size of an inner surface of each consecutive sleeve is substantially equal to the outer size of the adjacent sleeve. For instance, the outer size of the inner surface of the sleeve 3 c is equal to the size of the outer surface of the sleeve 3 b, etc. And, finally, notwithstanding the number of the surrounding layers, the size of the inner surface of the innermost sleeve is always substantially equal to the outer size of the core 2. It is understood, that the sleeves 3 a, 3 b and 3 c may have a thickness of an equal or a different size depending on a desirable pattern. Further, each groove 9 formed on the surface of the decorative member has the maximum circumferential size which is equal or less than the outer size of the core. Or in other words, each groove has a depth which is sufficient to uncover the layer of a predetermined depth and length on the outer surface 8 of the core 2.

As shown in FIG. 8, the combination of different types of a wood, such as walnut, red oak, maple and mahogany, may be utilized in order to achieve multi-colored/multi-grained decorative pattern.

The present invention further proposes an embodiment in which the core 2 and the surrounding sleeve are axially offset. Such arrangement allow to define the decorative pattern at only one side of the baluster as shown in FIG. 9.

Although the foregoing description was done in connection with the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that some substitution of addition may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the amended claims. 

1. A structural decorative member comprising a core made of one type of material, at least one sleeve made of another type of material surrounding said core, said core and said surrounding sleeve each having predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape complimenting each other, and at least one circumferential groove, said groove being cut on a preselected length and a depth sufficient to reveal a portion of said core, whereby a desirable decorative pattern is formed on a surface of the member.
 2. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said core is made of a wood having one type of a grain structure, and said at least one surrounding sleeve made of a wood having another type of a grain structure.
 3. A structural member according to claim 1, wherein said core is made of a plastic.
 4. A structural member according to claim 1, wherein said core is made of a metal.
 5. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said at least one circumferential groove has a preselected length and a depth of a size at maximum substantially equal to an outer size of the core, and defining a shoulder of a predetermined geometric shape and dimensions.
 6. A structural decorative member according to claim 5, wherein said groove is designed to have the depth of a size which is less than the outer size of said core.
 7. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said core and said at least one surrounding sleeve are coaxial with each other to create the decorative pattern symmetrically arranged on said surface of said member.
 8. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said core and said at least one surrounding sleeve are axially offset toward each other to create a free style decorative pattern on said surface of the member.
 9. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein an inner size of said at least one surrounding sleeve is substantially equal to an outer size of said core.
 10. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said groove is designed to have the depth of a size alternating along its length.
 11. A structural decorative member according to claim 10, wherein said groove is designed to have a variety of the geometric shapes or a combination thereof.
 12. A structural decorative member according to claim 11, wherein said groove has a frustum-conical shape.
 13. A structural decorative member according to claim 11, wherein said groove has a cylindrical shape.
 14. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said surrounding sleeve is formed of at least two pieces complimenting each other to define an inner surface forming a cavity having a geometric shape corresponding to the geometric shape of said core.
 15. A structural decorative member according to claim 14, wherein said pieces when joint define the inner surface of a geometric shape substantially identical to the geometric shape of said core.
 16. A structural decorative member according to claim 15, wherein said core has a rounded shape.
 17. A structural decorative wood member according to claim 15, wherein said core has a square shape.
 18. A structural decorative member according to claim 15, wherein said core has a triangle shape.
 19. A structural decorative member according to claim 15, wherein said core has a rectangular shape.
 20. A structural decorative member according to claim 19, wherein said rectangular core oriented such that its longitudinal sides are parallel with the longitudinal sides of an outer surface of the surrounding sleeve.
 21. A structural decorative member according to claim 15, wherein said inner surface of said surrounding sleeve and its outer surface each has a different geometric shape.
 22. A structural decorative member according to claim 21, wherein said outer surface has a square shape and said inner surface has a rounded shape.
 23. A structural decorative member according to claim 21, wherein said outer surface has a square shape and said inner surface has a rectangular shape.
 24. A structural decorative member according to claim 21, wherein the outer surface has a square shape and the inner surface has a triangle shape.
 25. A structural decorative member according to claim 1, wherein said member includes a plurality of axially spaced grooves along the length thereof.
 26. A structural decorative member according to claim 25, wherein said plurality of grooves defines a plurality of axially spaced shoulders having a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape.
 27. A structural decorative member according to claim 26, wherein at least one of said grooves is designed to have different dimensions and the different geometric shape from others.
 28. A structural decorative member according to claim 26, wherein at least one of said shoulders is designed to have different dimensions and the different geometric shape from others.
 29. A structural decorative member comprising: a core made of one type of material; a plurality of sleeves made of another type of material, said sleeves surrounding each other in a consecutive order, so as an inner size of each of said consecutive sleeve is substantially equal to an outer size of a previous adjacent sleeve; and a least one circumferential groove of a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape, said groove being dimensioned to have a circumference of a size substantially equal to a size of an outer surface of said core, and to define a shoulder of a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape, whereby a multi-colored multi-grained decorative pattern is form on a surface of said member.
 30. A structural decorative member according to claim 29, wherein said groove has a circumferential size which is less than the outer size of said core.
 31. A structural decorative member according to claim 29, wherein an inner size of an innermost sleeve adjacent to said core is substantially equal to an outer size of said core.
 32. A structural decorative member according to claim 29, said member including a plurality of axially spaced grooves along the length thereof.
 33. A structural decorative member according to claim 32, wherein said plurality of grooves defines a plurality of axially spaced shoulders having a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape.
 34. A structural decorative member according to claim 32, wherein each of said grooves is designed to have a variety of geometric shapes or a combination thereof.
 35. A structural decorative member according to claim 34, wherein at least one of said grooves is designed to have different dimensions and the different geometric shape from others.
 36. A structural decorative member according to claim 32, wherein each of said shoulders is designed to have a variety of geometric shapes or a combination thereof.
 37. A structural decorative member according to claim 36, wherein at least one of said shoulders is designed to have different dimensions and the different geometric shape from others.
 38. A structural decorative member according to claim 29, wherein each of said surrounding sleeves is formed of at least two pieces complimenting each other to compose a geometric shape corresponding to the geometric shape of said core.
 39. A structural decorative member according to claim 38, wherein said pieces when joint define an inner surface of a geometric shape substantially identical to the geometric shape of said core.
 40. Method of making the structural decorative member comprising the steps of: preparing a core of a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape from one type of material; preparing at least two pieces of a predetermined dimensions and a geometric shape from another type of material; permanently joining said at least two pieces to form at least one sleeve surrounding the core; forming at least one circumferential groove of a predetermined geometric shape and dimensions along a length of said decorative wood member, said groove having a circumference of a maximum size sufficient to partially reveal the core and defining a shoulder of a predetermined geometric shape and dimensions to create a variety of decorative patterns on a surface of the member.
 41. Method according to claim 40, said method further comprising a step of forming a plurality of axially spaced grooves along the length of said decorative member.
 42. Method according to claim 40, said method further comprising a step of forming a plurality of differently shaped axially spaced shoulders respective to said grooves along the length of the decorative member. 